Lets hope you are a business, and have been filing personal property tax in the state where you reside. In Md. we file it every year and the form asks how much end of the year inventory is on hand in state, and out of state. Personally, we only sell from our store location in Md, and do not have to file in another state as those lines have a zero entry. How have you handled this in the past years?

This statement is ridiculous. Amazon is going hamstring it’s shipping and distribution network to one of the wealthiest states in the country so YOU don’t have to pay taxes. They have been playing taxes for some time on their inventory in states, why would they do this for you? If you can’t afford to pay modest taxes on inventory, then you should not be doing this.

It’s called a levy and all a state needs to do is go into a court in their state and convince a judge in their state that money is owed that isn’t being paid and that state can go after everything you own in your state.

>Yup that is what I do… Just got one in the mail today and marked it UNKNOWN RTS. If they bitch, I’ll change my voter registration to my mom’s address in another for a year and vote absentee.

Nice to hear that you are participating in our society and not just a leech looking to avoid all adult responsibility wherever possible.

bunga bunga!

I pay taxes… I can’t afford to be on a jury and our state does not allow hardship exemptions any more. They are arresting so many people for so many things to generate revenue and keep the law enforcement unions happy that they can’t find enough warm bodies without records to serve on juries…

The “justice” system is nothing but a mill to keep judges PDs and cops employed. I learned that after I made the mistake of calling the police when I was mugged. I was ordered to court (under threat of arrest - and I was the victim) and every single time the DA blow off the case - she doesn’t have to worry about being arrested if she doesn’t show up. The legal system has no respect for the working person. Bunch of lazy 3rd rate law school grads and knuckle dragging donut scrafers .

These days I believe we should return to vigilantism - that is how I dealt with the guy who stole my bicycle. Hunted him down and took the law into my own hands.

It should not take 14 months of court hearing to deal with a petty hoodlum… a 100 years ago it would have been a day a court, and the prep would get a few days in jail and fine and call it even…

What a load of nonsense. There’s a jury system. If you want a jury when you are arrested for something, you should be willing to participate when someone else needs one.

Your blithering is just a pathetic attempt to justify your shiftlessness. Rather amazingly self-serving that your complaints about how the system works result in you not having to spend any time to help it along.

> Amazon has received a valid and binding legal demand from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) requiring that Amazon disclose the following information about sellers to the DOR:
>

Just read an article on it.

"Some Amazon sellers could soon get calls from Massachusetts state officials asking for unpaid sales taxes.

On Tuesday, Amazon notified its marketplace sellers that the company has agreed to hand over important merchant information to the state of Massachusetts — including their federal tax ID numbers and the estimated value of inventory stored in Amazon’s warehouses in that state.

The move — which is the first public case of Amazon handing over seller data to state tax officials — will help the state of Massachusetts identify which Amazon sellers may owe them unpaid sales taxes.

It could also mean incredible headaches for the majority of third-party sellers who never comply with various state laws on sales tax collection — if more states follow Massachusetts and demand unpaid taxes from those sellers.

Amazon currently collects sales tax on that products it sells directly, but leaves it up to sellers on the platform to handle their own tax collection. Those independent sellers are responsible for charging sales tax in any state where they have a physical presence, including the states where they store their products.

In the notice to sellers, viewed by CNBC, Amazon said it would share the information with Massachusetts by January 26, 2018. Amazon initially refused to cooperate in September, but said in the note it decided to comply after receiving a “valid and binding legal demand” from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. It also advised the sellers to consult with a tax adviser because “each seller’s business and tax needs are unique.”

The agreement would serve as an important case as it sets a precedent for other states to follow. The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates that states are missing up to $13 billion in annual revenue by failing to collect sales taxes from remote sellers."

"Vendor. A retailer or other person selling tangible personal property or services, the gross receipts from the retail sale of which are required to be included in the measure of the tax imposed by M.G.L. c. 64H or c. 64I.

(3) General Rule. An Internet vendor with a principal place of business located outside the state that is not otherwise subject to tax is required to register, collect and remit Massachusetts sales or use tax with respect to its Massachusetts sales as follows:

(a) For the period beginning October 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, if during the preceding 12 months, October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017, it had in excess of $500,000 in Massachusetts sales from transactions completed over the Internet and made sales resulting in a delivery into Massachusetts in 100 or more transactions."

So if I’m reading this correctly, sales tax only applies to sellers with sales over $500,000 AND 100 transactions.

I have been warning people that FBA will be considered a “nexus” in states. I kept being told I have no idea what I am talking about.

MA just sent the first shot across the bow. Be prepared, other states are sure to follow.

Yes. People – “experts” who acted like we were dumb – told us not to worry and only collect for sales in our home state but that just felt like disaster waiting to happen. (I’m a paralegal and see the pitfalls of just hoping things never catch up to you all the time.) So we signed up as soon as we started our FBA business with TaxJar and followed their recommendations for nexus states. It’s not that hard and doesn’t take that much more work, especially since TaxJar keeps track of deadlines and things. Just takes a good filing system for the business, even just in PDF formats.

>Yes. People – “experts” who acted like we were dumb – told us not to worry and only collect for sales in our home state but that just felt like disaster waiting to happen… So we signed up as soon as we started our FBA business with TaxJar and followed their recommendations for nexus states. It’s not that hard and doesn’t take that much more work, especially since TaxJar keeps track of deadlines and things…

I have been following this, just to be clear are the only to FBA warehouses in MA BOS5 and BOS7? Are there any others? So I should be worried about inventory in those 2 warehouses for inventory storage tax, and also sales from those two warehouses to other MA addresses for sales tax correct? Just wanted to make sure im interpreting this correctly. Im doing business out of IL

I have been following this, just to be clear are the only to FBA warehouses in MA BOS5 and BOS7? Are there any others? So I should be worried about inventory in those 2 warehouses for inventory storage tax, and also sales from those two warehouses to other MA addresses for sales tax correct? Just wanted to make sure im interpreting this correctly. Im doing business out of IL

If you are required to collect taxes on sales to MA residents, you are required to collect sales tax on all sales to MA residents, no matter where they ship from. Nexus, if it exists, applies to your entire business, not to specific orders.

Im not sure if the Massachusettes law is consistent with existing federal law (Quill and the Commerce Clause), but even if, hypothetically, it is…

The law Massachusettes is trying to enforce applies only to sellers who have sold over $500,000 to Massachusetts residents in the past year. Since MA has about 2% of the US population, a seller would have to sell about $25,000,000 annually before MA would come calling.
Every Mom and Pop seller is under that threshold.

AFAICT, the states which are pushing the envelope on sales tax collection (either by interpreting or overturning Quill) have fairly high minimum sales requirements. Quill required a substantial nexus, and the substantiality requirement is likely to survive even if Quill is overturned and states are allowed to use establish nexus on the basic of economic contact. If Quill is interpreted to allow nexus based on FBA inventory, I would think that a substantial amount of inventory would be required. A couple books in a MA warehouse wouldn’t do it.

Beyond that, there is a point at which collecting sales tax costs more than it generates. From a budget resources standpoint, it makes sense to go after the big companies rather than Mom and Pop.

Im not sure if the Massachusettes law is consistent with existing federal law (Quill and the Commerce Clause), but even if, hypothetically, it is…

The law Massachusettes is trying to enforce applies only to sellers who have sold over $500,000 to Massachusetts residents in the past year. Since MA has about 2% of the US population, a seller would have to sell about $25,000,000 annually before MA would come calling.
Every Mom and Pop seller is under that threshold.

AFAICT, the states which are pushing the envelope on sales tax collection (either by interpreting or overturning Quill) have fairly high minimum sales requirements. Quill required a substantial nexus, and the substantiality requirement is likely to survive even if Quill is overturned and states are allowed to use establish nexus on the basic of economic contact. If Quill is interpreted to allow nexus based on FBA inventory, I would think that a substantial amount of inventory would be required. A couple books in a MA warehouse wouldn’t do it.

Beyond that, there is a point at which collecting sales tax costs more than it generates. From a budget resources standpoint, it makes sense to go after the big companies rather than Mom and Pop.